Stacked Stone Necklace I am crazy about my local recycled art materials shop, where I find all kinds of amazing materials at rock-bottom (yes, I did just say that) prices. On one trip, I ran across some cool geological slices, irregularly-shaped concretions of translucent and opaque stone. There were also some smaller round, polished stones. I […]

Dr. Who Dalek Pendant This is just a short post to share a necklace I made for a Craft Swap partner, who is a big fan of Dr. Who. The base is stiff leather, with thin punched and embossed copper and other metal and bead embellishments, stitched and wired together through punched holes in the […]

Aluminum and Elastic   These bracelets are popular with young people, and are very easy to make. Step 1: Collect the materials. I think my version of this bracelet (fairly large) took about 24 tabs. It also required about a yard of elastic. You can use almost any kind of elastic that is narrow enough […]

Folded edges form multicolor stripes When I was young, I would occasionally help my mom or my sister fold and put away the bath towels. (In case my sister reads this, I should probably admit that it wasn’t very often!) Anyway, I remember my mom (or maybe it was my sister…) being very particular about how […]

Gamer fancies! Yes, I am posting yet more items that I made for a craft swap! This swap’s theme was the game Dragon Age. We sent our package in early April. Like the Hunger Games swap, I participated in tandem with my son Will, who came up with the ideas for the swap items we sent, […]

May the odds be ever in your favor! Have you read or seen the Hunger Games? My son, Will, was actually the person who got me started on the book series, and then the whole family saw the movie when it came out. As I so often do, I participated in a craft swap on the […]

Colorful translucent pendant You know those metal-rimmed string tags? Recently, I picked up a whole box of them, second-hand. Those tags always remind me of Martha Stewart. She seems to like them a lot… I picture her writing on them very neatly (in ink of course), with all of the tiny words correctly spelled, beautifully […]

Bazinga! On the Internet a few weeks ago, I ran across Gavin Worth’s wonderful wire sculptures. They are beautiful art pieces, like contour drawings pulled off the page into the three-dimensional world.   I knew I was eventually going to have to try the technique myself. As a fan of the television show Big Bang Theory, I recently joined […]

Numerical tiny treasures   Here is a New Year’s craft (or really “anytime” craft, since this calendar has no real start or end) that you will be able to enjoy – -and update, if you like– for many years to come. It is also a great way to display some of your favorite trinkets. I […]

Anti-virus protection! Last year around Christmas-time, I discovered a great craft project over at the Chica and Jo craft web site. (Love their web site!!!) It involved embellishing a tissue box cover with computer keyboard keys. My husband is a “computer professional”, so I could not wait to make my own version as a gift! […]

Beverage brand bottlecap magnets I know I already showed you how to make bottlecap magnets where there is a little picture inside the cap. These are a little different, in that they show off the TOP of the bottlecap. Some bottlecaps are stylish, cute or colorful… or even funny/kitschy. Or maybe someone on your gift […]

Bottlecap necklaces These are so cool I wish I could take credit for the idea, but they are all over the Internet. All you do is collect and clean some bottlecaps (or buy them at a craft store), glue little pictures inside, then turn them into jewelry! Here’s what I used for mine: A one-inch […]

How to give an egg timer a tri-metal upgrade There is just something magical and enchanting about hourglasses. Can’t you visualize the witch’s giant hourglass with blood-red sand, counting down the minutes to poor Dorothy’s demise in the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz? Or imagine Hermione’s “Time Turner” necklace from the wizarding world depicted in Harry Potter and […]

How to make a customized letter opener The other day, my teenage son (who is at an age where he is getting lots of mail from different universities who sincerely want our money) was asking for a letter opener. We looked around the house (I know that there is one around here, somewhere…) to no avail. […]